


A Repeated Attack

by Just_Another_Day



Category: Captive Prince - C. S. Pacat
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Demonic Possession, Drama, Dubious Consent Due To Identity Issues, M/M, Violence, references to death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-05
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-10-10 10:54:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20526833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Just_Another_Day/pseuds/Just_Another_Day
Summary: "Good morning, lover," Damen says.Laurent immediately tenses. Damen never calls him that. That word is only ever spoken in anger and frustration between them, not as a casual morning greeting.





	A Repeated Attack

**Author's Note:**

  * For [booksnchocolate](https://archiveofourown.org/users/booksnchocolate/gifts).

> The idea originated from booksnchocolate, who asked for a talented writer to pick it up and instead has to settle for me. 😂
> 
> Also fills the 'Demonic/Ghostly Possession' square of my Bad Things Happen Bingo card.

It isn't the sun that wakes Laurent that morning. The distant light of it still lurking just under the horizon might be touching the curtains, but it's barely enough to lend a slight glow to the room. It's only just bright enough, in fact, to make out Damen's silhouette. Damen shifting around must be what prompted Laurent's mind back to consciousness, for he's not lying beside Laurent or curled around him as he usually would be in the mornings, but is instead sitting propped up against the pillow behind his back. His body is swivelled a little, and his head is craning down in Laurent's direction. So that he can watch him, Laurent realises. He's not sure why that's so disquieting. Maybe it's just that he's not used to Damen being awake before him. In the weeks since they started sharing a bed this way, Damen has never once woken before Laurent.

"Good morning, lover," Damen says.

Laurent immediately tenses. Damen never calls him that. That word is only ever spoken in anger and frustration between them, not as a casual morning greeting.

Concerned, Laurent drags himself up into a sitting position as well.

"What's wrong?" Laurent asks. It comes out with the slight rasp of still being half-asleep.

"Wrong?" Damen asks slowly, almost like he doesn't recognise the word. "Why would anything be wrong?"

It doesn't feel like a reassurance, somehow.

Something definitely isn't right here. That quickly wakes Laurent the rest of the way up.

Even in the low light, Laurent can see that Damen is smiling. There's nothing unusual about that in and of itself. Damen smiles a lot, and usually just the sight of it is enough to make Laurent want to forget whatever else is going on so that he can take the time to kiss the dimple in Damen's cheek and claim the upturn of Damen's mouth with his own. But this grin is too wide. _Far_ too wide. It looks sharp and dangerous. And Laurent is left with the insane but unshakeable impression that Damen has too many teeth.

Damen reaches for him, then, still smiling. Some deep-seated instinct sends Laurent sliding off the other side of the bed and onto his feet, out of Damen's grasp.

"What's wrong?" Damen echoes Laurent's earlier question. Laurent can't help but think his tone sounds mocking.

A heavy feeling of déjà vu is settling over Laurent, but he doesn't want to believe that what he's sensing is the truth. He needs to see the proof that he's wrong.

Laurent shuffles sideways towards the curtain, not quite willing to take his eyes off Damen.

When Damen moves along with him, following Laurent along the length of the bed in a crawl, it's a little too sinuous. That isn't how Damen usually moves. Especially not so early in the morning, when Damen tends to be a little more lumbering and clumsier, since he's always slow to rise. Laurent's heart races even faster.

When Laurent yanks the material back from the window, it introduces just enough additional light into the room that Laurent can finally see Damen's features properly.

Damen's body is unnaturally still now, perched at the end of the bed like a large animal ready to pounce; it looks as if he isn't even so much as drawing breath. The shadows he casts seem to have a life of their own, writhing like snakes around him, expanding out into every dark corner of the room. And the usual warm brown of his eyes has been entirely taken over by too-familiar black.

Laurent recoils.

No.

_No._

That isn't Damen. Not really.

Laurent keenly remembers Auguste, with nothing of the usual pale blue of his irises left to be seen under the black, slinking towards Laurent with a knife in hand and intent displayed in his smile. It had made Laurent feel thoroughly unsafe for the first – but unfortunately not the last – time in his life. But it had been so confusing, because there was no one safer than Auguste. So he'd just watched his brother come for him, not knowing what else to do. Laurent recalls Damen grabbing Auguste by the shoulder and flinging him away from Laurent, positioning himself between them.

He also remembers Auguste's blood coating Damen's blade and the floor only a few minutes later.

Laurent had been subliminally aware that Damen hadn't actually set out to murder Auguste. It wasn't some ploy he'd set up to justify himself. His intention had obviously just been to stop Auguste before he could sink his own blade into Laurent instead. But Laurent had for a long time refused to accept that Auguste's death might have been the only way, or at least the only way Damen could see at the time. Even understanding it better now at twenty than at thirteen, Laurent has still only just managed to overcome years of resentment and find a way to forgive Damen for doing what Laurent couldn't have done himself.

Laurent still doesn't think he could do it, faced with the choice now. Not to Auguste. And surely not to Damen either.

"_Damen_," Laurent says insistently. He has just the slightest bit of hope that just hearing his name, or perhaps hearing the desperation in Laurent's voice, might be enough to conjure the Damen he knows so well back to the surface. Even though the same thing hadn't worked with Auguste.

The thing that's wearing Damen's face and inhabiting Damen's body only seems to smile even wider, if that's at all possible.

"I think you already know that's not really my name, little lamb."

Laurent shudders. It had called him that the last time too, in Auguste's voice. A 'little lamb for the slaughter', it had said, wheezing through blood-flecked laughter just before Auguste's body had collapsed, punctuated by Laurent's scream.

This is history repeating itself. It's not just a similar experience. It's the _exact same creature_.

Part of Laurent is aching to attack it. To make it pay for being the reason, even more so than Damen, that Auguste is dead, and to punish it for touching Damen now as well. But physically hurting it will only really hurt Damen. Even killing Damen apparently wouldn't kill it, considering being inside Auguste's bleeding body years ago didn't seem to have gotten rid of it permanently.

Not that Laurent has any intention of testing that out.

He calls for the guards instead. Most of them have been around not to be too surprised to find Laurent and Damen both entirely naked when they enter, though a few do still avert their eyes respectfully. They are, however, confused when Laurent demands that they restrain Prince Damianos. Even Damen's guards don't offer more than a token protest, though, once the thing they believe to be Damen turns its mad grin on them. Laurent isn't the only one who can see that Damen isn't himself, even if the others don't understand _why_.

"You think that will stop me?" the thing asks. "I have no problems breaking this body to get to you. In fact, I'll enjoy doing so. I remember your face when your brother died. It was so sweet. I want to see that again. To savour it properly this time."

"You won't have the chance," says Laurent as he plucks his shirt off the floor and slides it over his head, like putting on armour to defend himself. To the men holding Damen four to each arm (which still probably won't be enough if the creature struggles, but for some reason it isn't even trying to get away), Laurent instructs, "He'll be strapped securely down to a bed in padded chains too tight for him to move at all times, and watched carefully by a dozen guards at a time on rotation. Anyone who injures him or allows him to injure himself will receive the same treatment tenfold themselves."

"And how long do you think they can keep that up?"

The sound of its voice – Damen's, but too harsh – continues to grate on Laurent. At least that makes this easier, somehow.

It has a point, unfortunately. It will probably take weeks to get to Arles, and to beat back the forces they'll encounter there. But Laurent has no alternative. So he has to believe that it will work. And if this creature really _does_ want to hurt Laurent, Laurent has to believe it won't bother hurting Damen while Laurent can't see it, and suffer from it. There's no way around it.

So Laurent says, "Long enough, I promise you. You should have just taken your chance to kill me while I was sleeping, if that's why you've come back. You won't get another chance."

"Ah, but that would have been too simple. And I was promised more than just your blood in payment for my services this time."

'Promised'. Of course. It only made sense.

No one other than Damen himself had ever believed Laurent about what he'd seen the day Auguste was killed, but that scepticism had never stopped Laurent from scouring the library for any hint of similar stories to allow him to make some sense of what had happened. By fifteen, Laurent had consumed far more than his fill of supposedly fictional stories about witches and shapeshifters and the fae. And demons. That had been where Laurent thinks he found his answers. Demons, who could wholly possess a man's body, but not without an invitation from another human. Laurent had never found how that 'invitation' occurred, but clearly _someone_ knew how to do it, since it had happened twice. And if that person knew a way to conjure it, then surely they had to have access to information about a way to banish it as well.

Laurent knew of only one man who would ruthlessly use both Auguste and Damen against him that way. Who had reason to want all three of them dead. And who would promise Laurent's body as well as his life, as though it's his to give. Laurent had convinced himself that it was the Akielons who'd cursed Auguste the last time, but now he had no doubts who the real perpetrator must be.

"Gather the rest of the men," Laurent orders Jord. "We march on Arles today."

If any of the men are particularly surprised at Laurent's pronouncement – which comes on the heels of Laurent insisting that before they can make a move they need more time, and more men, and a better plan that can't be so easily countered by a whip-smart man with power – they're careful not to show it too obviously. Not that Laurent is paying them much direct attention anyway. His eyes are on the devil masquerading as a man. As Damen.

Laurent isn't going to kill Damen, possessed by a monster or not. He's forgiven Damen, but he still has never thought that there couldn't have been a way to save Auguste back then, and now he has the proof that killing Auguste was ultimately pointless. Laurent refuses to let the same mistake happen twice now that he fully comprehends the situation, and now that there's no one to take the choice from his hand.

But he finds he has a lot fewer compunctions about killing his uncle, especially now. Laurent has been willing to let a lot of things stand up until now. He's retreated rather than fighting outright, trying to find a way to reclaim his birthright that won't require the bloodshed his uncle seems intent on forcing them towards. But enough is enough. A threat like this to Damen can't be borne as easily as one to himself.

As the chains Laurent has ordered and the padding to prevent the chains from bruising are brought in, and just before Laurent leaves to prepare to ride out (and to avoid continuing to have to see Damen's body being manhandled), the creature says, "I wonder, even if you try to find some other way to be rid of me, how will you ever _really_ know that I'm completely gone as long as your lover is still alive?"

In the flicker of a moment, Damen looks properly like himself again. His eyes are soft, the way he always looks at Laurent. Without thinking, Laurent surges towards him before he catches himself, narrowing his eyes. The demon hasn't gone anywhere. It can't have. Not that easily, and with no sign of it leaving.

It's a trick. Only that. But it's a _convincing_ one.

From Damen's lips, spoken far too pleasantly, come the words: "How can you be sure that it's him, when you didn't even notice who was really fucking you last night?"

Laurent's stomach roils. The demon clearly enjoys toying with him, or Laurent would already be dead. So it's probably lying just to fuck with his mind. But the fact that Laurent just _can't be sure_ is, of course, the point.

"I'll take my chances," Laurent forces himself to say firmly, unflinchingly.

Laughter follows Laurent out of the room, as venomous as the words that had spewed from its mouth.

At least Laurent makes it down the hall, where he won't be heard, before being violently sick.

Seeing the demon looking at him just as Damen does, indistinguishable, paired with how unconcerned the thing seemed about the prospect of Laurent actually finding another way to eject it from Damen's body, isn't something Laurent can easily push aside. The demon is right that Laurent might never be able to look at Damen without doubting at least a little in the back of his mind that it's really _him_.

But if the alternative is Damen's death…

Laurent will track down his uncle first and force him to tell Laurent every single thing he knows about this thing he's repeatedly brought down on Laurent and on the men Laurent cares about most. That's all he can focus on for now.

The rest Laurent will have to deal with later, once he comes to it.

That's the only way he can deal with this without letting it break him.


End file.
